Beyond the Mirror of Erised
by ZuksGaia
Summary: Lily Evans x Severus Snape emotive lovely goodness, because LESS is more. Varies from sweet to dark to silly. 50 Scenes Challenge. R&R. Disclaimer in profile. Unbetaed, but few errors. Sixth: Chill.
1. 05: Blankets

50 Scenes Challenge

Lily Evans x Severus Snape

#05: Blankets.

Winter was always chilly, snow or no snow. This year it had come in the form of slowly drifting little puffs that melted on everything, but left them feeling icy. The wind was harsh and blew out the shivers hiding in every living creature's spine, rattling leaves and swaying them in its wake.

A little hand in purple mittens knocked on the door of a battered-looking shack of a place. The brick was filthy with blackish soot, likely from towering chimney of a factory nearby, and it seemed that everything else on the home was tattered, as if it had been dragged around in a bag for years before being sloppily tacked onto the house. Even the glass on the windows were weather-stained, an ominous-looking one in the corner bearing an eerie spider-web crack.

Lily Evans looked around nervously, huffing into her puffy scarf. The dead winter trees shook in an apparent mirror of nerves – or perhaps, as she thought, the wind.

After some time the front door creaked open cautiously. A little boy in a battered-looking shirt and patched-up shorts stood there, his figure abominably pale and his hair sticking to his head in an oily craze. All together he looked like the shadowy ghost of a boy than a real person standing at the door.

Still, a small spark lit in his eyes when he saw Lily standing at his front door. "I'm sorry I took so long to get at the door." he whispered. "I had to be sure that they weren't going to… do anything." Lily nodded at the explanation.

"So, um, what are you doing here?" young Severus asked, motioning to the bundle in her arms. "What's that?"

"Oh, um, these are for you." Lily said, her face lighting red, although it might have been the sudden movement of her face from the warmth of her scarf to the chill of the air. "My great-aunt knits us dozens and dozens of these things every year, and I thought that… maybe… you might like some." She shrugged a little bit before thrusting the large bundle into the arms of a frozen-looking Severus Snape, eyes wide with shock – or maybe just frozen open along with the rest of him.

He looked at the bundle of knitted wonders. "Blankets?" he asked, his face contorting confusedly. The menagerie of colors in his arms seemed as confused as he did.

"Our house is so overflowing with the things, we could tripe-insulate every house in the neighborhood." Lily re-explained. "And they are very comfy. Our house is a fireplace at their fault, but I'm sure this time of winter, the heater's not the best all of the time. I'm sure they'll keep you nice and cozy." She smiled, her face now flushed, and stepped down the broken-down porch to the beat-up pathway. She turned back and waved at Severus, stiff as a statue in the doorway.

"Bye." she said. "And you should shut the door soon, before your house becomes completely frozen."

Snape shivered back to life before trying his best to hold the blanket bundle and wave ferociously back at her simultaneously. "Goodbye!" he exclaimed, forgetting his whispering precaution, "And thank you very much!"

Lily giggled and took off down the cobbled road.

Severus smiled, his face igniting to a fire-truck level of red, before creaking the door shut with his leg and carefully kicking it closed. He turned and sighed. The ghostly figure of a pale woman greeted him, and he came close to falling backwards in surprise. Lily had captivated him so greatly that he hadn't noticed his mother coming into the room – though she might have simply become that good at creeping through the house.

"Your friend?" she asked, her voice soft and a little crackly. Severus shook his head and up down so quick and hard he might have ricocheted his head off. Eileen chuckled quietly and pulled a blanket from the bundle in his arms, popping it open in the air above his head expertly before wrapping it around him like a glorious cloak.

"There now," she whispered, "Doesn't that seem splendid, my little Prince?"

Young Severus' face lit aglow with warm smile, transforming his former sickly appearance into that of a fair young man.

"Indeed." she said, ruffling his hair, then kissing him lightly on the forehead. "Now, let's get to the study, before your father finds it."

Little Severus trotted off determinedly, the mission his mother assigned taken with great seriousness in his mind. Eileen watched him go and followed him down the hall, taking the door after he went inside.

She glanced back from the doorway. Tobias stared coldly back at her from the front staircase, grimy and unshaven, shadows cascading over his form. Eileen's face broke a little before she near threw the door closed – all her weakness pouring from her back. She pulled her wand from where she had hidden it on her person, and with a quick flit, she locked the door.


	2. 09: Remember

#09 Blankets.

The sun was rising… regally, grandly… as _slowly_ as possible over the horizon. The sky around it was already a day-time blue, but seeming more lovely than usual with the moon still sauntering around with glimmering stars in the black of night right across the morning plane, the trees still whispering in shadow. Mist arose from the ground and sunk from seeming nothingness, stroking leaves and flora of every kind so that they shivered dew. It was peaceful, and the birds were beginning to wake, to chirp, to sing their songs… the owls were finding their places to sleep… the flowers were rising ready for the sun of day, now peeping over the land unsure of its readiness for work, and a few clever, straggling bats prepared for their sweetest desserts, the morning nectar…

Lily smiled wearily on the porch, her arms crossed, elbows rested on the wooden railing. The sun dawdled as long as it could, still barely a sliver, as if hoping an asteroid would come and obliterate the planet, sparing it from its duties. Lily lazily made a motion with her hand, more of a twitch, really, as if to coax the day-star on. Might as well hurry on. She wasn't going to get any sleep, anyway.

"Come along, sun," Lily mumbled, "Right and get you over with already…"

The French door slid open behind her and a semblance of a man wandered over to her side in a staggering motion. He hung himself over the rail as if it were his final resting place and sighed.

"What a night," he said, his tone half-resenting, half-too tired to hold on to his resentment any longer.

"Do you remember having that much energy?" Lily croaked, one of her ankles apparently caving in on itself, causing her to loll lopsidedly on the rail.

"Energy?" Severus gasped, his eyes struggling so hard to stay open that they watered like a melon on a rainy day, "The only thing that ever got me up in the morning without my flinging myself into the pits of hell the instant I arose… was you."

He turned to her with the most pathetically-weak but determined-to-hold-up smile ever conceived, his eyelids now battling his eyes in a fierce war, trying to pull his gaze from the woman he so dearly loved.

Lily smiled back at him with the most equally pathetic expression, a smile that looked as if it had been pulled off of a sugar-ridden cartoon, slapped on the face of a woman ready to scream at the day to _get a move on_ already.

"You are still either the most romantic… or the most… disturbingly self-maligning man that I have ever met, Severus." she said, trotting over to him with a swagger. He took the opportunity to peck her on the lips, sweet as nectar, before losing himself again in her brilliant green eyes.

"Do you remember… sleeping, whenever we wanted?" he uttered, a laugh tickling his face, too tired to reach for his throat.

"At any time of day." she recalled.

"Whenever we wished." he said.

"Just to lie in bed!" she giggled. "To hold each other for no reason at all, snuggled in covers."

"Making sure we used every blanket at our disposal." Snape reminded.

"That was a lot of blankets, just for sleeping," she garbled, trying to stop exhausted spit from escaping her teeth.

"And can you believe, all we did was sleep?" he said, a true smile spreading along his face now, pulling the finally arising rays of sun onto his sallow skin.

"Oooh, curse you, Severus… All I want to _do_ is sleep now!" she cried, thrusting herself on him, collapsing them both to the hard floor of the back porch in the process.

Severus seethed through his teeth on impact, his head only cushioned by his matted, greasy hair.

"Ohh… Are you alright, Sev?" Lily giggled tearily, her fatigue setting into something close to incomprehensible.

"In pain, but yes, thank you for asking, dear." Severus remarked, looking like a corpse splayed on the ground.

"I can't move, dear, I'm sorry. And I must say that you are far too comfortable," Lily spoke muffled into his shoulder. "I really am going to have to sleep, right here, right now, without anymore delay… at all." She nestled herself onto him lazily, he apparently being the ideal body-pillow.

"Hold on a moment," Severus exclaimed, "I don't know if you remember this, dear… We were speaking about it, quite a long time ago, a whole minute and a half, but you know that we _do_ have a bed."

"It's too far away." she declared. "I am not moving… for any reason, not for anything or anyone… that includes you, so-"

Faintly, as if over a quiet speaker, the sound of wailing could be heard, a wailing with little more cause and meaning other than to say, 'come, and that includes you' to whomever it so wished to entice.

"She's up." Severus stated factually.

"Yes I know." Lily said half-bitterly.

"Get up." Severus said.

"Okay." Lily grumbled. "I will then."

Lily pried herself of Severus as if they had been tacked together with molasses, standing herself up like her feet were incapable of balancing in more than one stance, rigid and reluctant. Severus slid himself up like a slinky, his knees making it up before his head did.

"Alright," Severus ushered, steering Lily the seven-and-a-quarter-or-so feet to the back sliding door, his hand fumbling around to find the handle.

"Hey," he mused suddenly, as if he had forgotten something, his eyebrow lifting in question. His head rotated owlishly, more slowly than the sun had taken to rise, Lily staring at him looking awfully like an over-baked potato being left in the oven. His eyes met hers with a certain seriousness only he could achieve.

"Do you remember what number her room was?" he drawled.

"Come on!" Lily snipped, shoving him through the door, "This is no time for dilly-dallying!"

A quiet 'but we've already seen to her _all night_', could be heard from inside before she slammed the door shut.

The sun was still in the morning sky, standing dutifully there despite its obvious reluctance. The moon and stars were nowhere to be found, and the sky was a bright blue, cotton clouds tossed in here and there if only to make it look deeper. The day had started, and only _just_ started… not going anywhere anytime soon.


	3. 13: February

#13 February.

Severus

It's that time of year-

February's near.

Valentines,

Devoted shrines,

Oh how I wish that you'd be mine!

The chocolate treats,

The heart-shaped sweets,

The melody my foolish heart so devoted and persistently beats-

Lily

Oh how I wonder what I'll get this year?

I know I'll get chocolate every year, but that's not what I fear.

Who'll it be from this time? Just who from here?

Will it be someone truly kind or someone awfully austere?

Will they be dear to me or be a deer?

Will they truly be sincere or just appear to be since-?

Severus

I hope that you are not deceived, my love,

Tricked by foolish nitwits come to steal my love.

Crawling out to steal your heart,

Pull it apart,

And wait as it departs from earth.

Take out your soul,

Leave it feeling cold,

And abandoning it all alone.

… Oh, I won't have it!

Lily

I wonder what sweet words will greet me at the foot of my bed.

What soft letters singing love songs making me blush red?

Oh I hope it is well said,

For I surely will not it to be spoiled so I shred it,

Just as I read it,

And I dread it coming year.

Severus

I hope that you my love, will want to eat what I have made for you…

It's not particularly sweet,

The taste's discreet,

But quite complete and…

Rather light and soft like you.

I'm sure that it'd suit your tastes.

Lily

It's almost here.

I'm sure that any minute,

Valentine's will come ringing in my ear,

Telling me morning's here.

And I could almost spear the one who wakes me up,

If the day wasn't so dear.

I can hear it ringing!

Wonder what it's bringing?

Severus

Lily! Good morning! Here for you I have ah-

Lily groggily stared at Severus, standing by the foot of her bed, having woken her up on Valentine's Day morning.

"Sev?" she asked.

"Yes, Lily?" Severus chirped awkwardly.

"Would you mind telling me… how it is you got into the Gryffindor girl's dormitory?" she said emotionlessly.

Severus stared at her blankly. "I don't know…?"

"I didn't think you would, somehow, Sev…" Lily said, pulling her legs from beneath the covers and beginning to walk off.

"Wait! Lily!" Severus gasped. "The- the- the- your breakfast!"

Lily turned to him and looked at what he was holding. A breakfast-in-bed tray with rather fancily made-

"Omelet?" Lily quipped. She instantly crashed back onto the bed and practically threw the tray onto her lap. "Happy Valentine's day to me!" she cried excitedly to herself.

Severus watched, bewilderment slowly covering his face (like the folds of an omelet!), as Lily furiously devoured his loving creation. "Li… Lil… Lily, I was just going to ask-"

Lily glared up at Severus, _or whoever it was_, interrupting her breakfast in bed.

"_What_?" she demanded.

"Oh, nothing. Go on." Severus urged, throwing his questions about love and commitment, and, you know, _possible future engagement and that sort of thing_ to the garbage for the time being. He supposed that at least now, he was content to know that the love of his life, at the very least,

…was satisfied with his cooking.


	4. 17: Tomorrow

#17 Tomorrow

Her sea of red hair flowed gently, like shallow waves stroking the rocky shore. He felt his smile broaden, the way it only could with her, his frosted cold skin warmed by an inner light, an inner light which only she could awaken. They didn't know, neither of them knew… what tomorrow would change. How tomorrow would change.

She didn't know her words would be taken as ill aide, as the final blow in a battle cheated. He didn't know his face would twist horrifically, his mouth pulling down, down in anger and in shame.

She didn't know that he would be ridiculed publicly for all to see, and that no one else would come to stop it. He didn't know that he would be held upside down and beaten, like a weak childish play thing intended to be ripped apart just to see what would fall out from him.

She wouldn't know why she was an exception to a cold rule born from neglect and hatred. He didn't know that, when he was beaten to the breaking point, what the final words to spill from his tongue would be.

She wouldn't know he only wanted to be strong, to be stronger for her. He didn't know that he would take that strength, and contort it into something wrong.

She didn't know that he could never think lowly of her, ever, and for always. He didn't know that when the struggle ceased, from his damaged insides would come dripping from his lips, such a thing to call his only joy, "Mudblood".

She didn't know how he could even say it.

He didn't know he did.

They didn't know they'd hurt tomorrow.


	5. 21: Underneath

#21: Underneath

The grass was soft and not really dewy; not anymore, at least – springy and fresh and surprisingly inviting. There they both lay, stuck carefully amongst the roots of the tree which towered above them and showed them dappled shade. Both of them had managed to lay down in ways that their hair circled around them like curling fans of feathers, making them both look mildly absurd - but perhaps the broad smiles they both wore underneath the tree made up for it.

The woman, her hair a deep red that seemed an active and fiery plumage dancing around her head, stared up at the branches with bright, observant, emerald eyes, glimmering in the half light.

The man, his hair lank and dark, looking more like a damp, greasy animal than anything, stared, with his black eyes glimmering as well, his attention not centered above but at the lovely woman who lay there beside him. His sallow, pale hand moved, its fingers grasping, quite resembling bare branches, reached for the soft hand of the flower that rested near him.

She turned to look at him curiously. He smiled in a way that would usually be considered sheepish, but it looked more bird-like on his longish face, and color lighted his cheeks. Her smiled broadened, and she accepted his hand and grasped it comfortably, sending a look of pleasant surprise and delight to the man's face. He inched toward her, his hair following him like a lot of hungry caterpillars, until his hooked nose right about bumped into her straight and feminine one.

A laugh tickled her teeth and so she closed her lips and held it in with her tongue, instead distracting herself by boring playfully into his dark eyes and raising her eyebrows into a pseudo-questioning expression.

He raised his eyebrows in return, in a way which said, the answer is obvious, and then waited for her reply. She feigned still not understanding, and he rolled his eyes and mouthed silently, 'let me kiss you'. She looked around as if she had not seen it, and perhaps the answer he mouthed had flown away somewhere, and so he rolled his eyes again and decided to go along without asking. His face glided forward the final few inches, catching her in the middle of her joke, the laughter now sparkling in her bright green eyes, and she relaxed very suddenly, as if the laugh had flown away with the wind, through the dappled light and out from underneath the lakeside tree.


	6. 20: Author's Choice, Chill

They were lying in the grass under the shade of a tree, as they often did

They were lying in the grass under the shade of a tree, as they often did. They were now very close together. Their hair sprawled out under them, young Severus whispered softly, and nearly to himself: "I wish this moment could last forever."

Honesty twinkled in his dark, ten-year-old eyes, and he seemed to be trying, very hard somehow, to keep from doing something.

"I wish we could have many more moments like this one." Lily replied quietly, staring still upward into the quivering tree branches.

A soft smile traced her face but very suddenly the wind picked up, rushing through the leaves above them, and they both looked up in dismay to see that the sunny day was soon to be seized, a gray, brash storm cloud bustling in the sky, towards the sun. A chill of cold air poured around them and snaked around their arms and ankles, and they huddled together quietly.

The cloud drew ever nearer and the sky grew drearier, the bright blue with puffy clouds replaced with a solemn sheet of dusty mauve. And after a while, names began to be called out in the distance.

"Lily," Severus said gently, his tiny voice slightly breaking, "I don't want to go home." Lily turned to him and saw his face cold and pale with anguish, a look of haunting and ghostliness draped across his face. His eyes were open wide but distant, dark and empty, so much they made you think of tunnels and hidden spaces - and they glimmered with a cryptic rain.

"Lily," he whimpered kindly, "I wish that I could stay here with - "

And she embraced him warmly, and he felt his body turn from colder than ice to something warm, burning, alit with fire, pounding deeply in his chest. And he knew then he did not wish to ever part with that moment ever in time.

In the distance, names were being called. And soon, the rain began to pour, softly, one by one and after another.

And no children remained there, under the tree.


End file.
